Ivan Hewett reviews the second concert by Daniel Barenboim and the
Berlin Staatskapelle at the Festival Hall in London.

Daniel Barenboim is giving three concerts with his Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra, two of which offer a Mozart piano concerto as an hors d’oeuvre to a late Bruckner symphony.

In the second of the series, which took place last night, he dispensed with the hors d’oeuvre. And rightly so, because Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony is the most immense of the set, and has to stand alone.

Immense could be taken to mean heroic and monumental, but that’s clearly not Barenboim’s view.

As with the Seventh Symphony the previous night, he made this one seem urgent and lyrical, even in its grandest moments.

The opening sets the tone; under a shimmer of string sound the basses and cellos play a pregnant phrase, which should open up vast horizons.